Grisly Death Awaits Pak Serial Killer

A file photo of serial killer, Javed Iqbal. Photo: AFP

A Pakistani court on Thursday convicted Javed Iqbal of killing 100 children and sentenced him to death in the same grisly fashion in which he killed his victims.

Judge Allah Baksh Ranja ordered that the convict should be strangled to death and his body cut into 100 pieces and then dissolved in acid in front of the parents of the children he had killed.

"Javed Iqbal was convicted for killing 100 children," the judge said. The convict was also sentenced him to 700 years of imprisonment.

One of his accomplices, 17-year-old Sajid Ahmad, was also given the death penalty. Two others, Mohammad Nadim and Mohammad Sabir, were sentenced to jail for 14 years.

 

The judge recommended the punishment be carried out in public at a national memorial, made up of a minaret called Minar-e-Pakistan in the historic city of Lahore.

Pakistan's military government reacted with apparent discomfort over the mode of execution ordered by the judge. Interior Minister Moinudeen Haider told reporters in Islamabad the sentence handed out to the serial killer was not permitted and would be challenged in a higher court.

"This will be challenged in the High Court. We are signatories to the Human Rights Commission. Such punishments are not allowed," Haider said.

The verdict was announced to a packed court room amid tight security. Iqbal and his three other accomplices smiled as they heard the decision. The condemned serial killer tried to speak but a policeman gagged him by thrusting a hand into his mouth.

His lawyer Najeeb Faisal said an appeal would be moved at the Lahore High Court.

Iqbal, 38, told the police that he had murdered 100 children and dissolved their bodies in acid at his home in the Ravi Road area of Lahore last year. He had claimed that the killings were in revenge for his arrest and alleged police atrocity after he was convicted on child abuse charges.

Iqbal surrendered on the New Year's eve in Lahore, dramatically entering the offices of the Jang newspaper to offer himself to military authorities."

The prosecution produced 105 witnesses, including 73 family members of the missing children but the forensic evidence in the case was always poor. Police said they found the decomposed bodies of only three children at Iqbal's house but the remains were later found to be animal bones. Several bundles of children's clothes and shoes were found at his home as well as an album of photographs of young boys and a diary.

Two senior police officials were removed from their posts after a man suspected of supplying acid to Iqbal apparently committed suicide.